This National Park Has Ice Skating on Turquoise Lakes

At the base of Alberta, Canada’s snow-saturated Rocky Mountains, I laced up my skates and started to spin. I’d like to blame my wobbly position on the day’s combination of wind, fresh snowfall, and single-digit temperatures rather than my out-of-practice skill, but it doesn’t matter: On Lake Louise, only the mountains bear witness.

Those mountains anchor Banff National Park’s 2,564 square miles and entice skiers, snowboarders, and ice climbers every year. Yet while the Rockies transform Banff into a mountaineer’s playground, it’s the in-between spaces—the alpine valleys and frozen pauses—that glimmer with wild ice and outdoor rinks.

As a recreational figure skater, I seek out every opportunity to find open-air ice and exercise my otherwise dormant passion. Outdoor skating grounds me in nature, offering an unbridled connection to both my body and my environment.

In my quests for pretty places to skate, I’ve traveled to New York’s Adirondacks and Vermont’s Lake Morey, but Banff has always harbored my dream lakes. Every winter, my Instagram algorithm floods with Abraham Lake’s ice bubbles and Lake Louise’s well-maintained rink, which the Fairmont Chateau routinely Zambonis.

Among the world’s most beloved natural rinks, Lake Louise is Banff’s frozen showstopper and the first stop on my ice pilgrimage. Even with patches of the morning’s snow, the lake’s turquoise water tinted the ice blue, though the jagged Rockies demanded my attention. I’d never skated with my gaze so fixed on my surroundings; a backdrop of 10,000-foot mountains may be the best tool to improve a skater’s posture.

Although you can rent skates at Lake Louise, I brought my own, and to justify the luggage space,  wanted to use them as much as possible—an easy feat in Banff. Beyond Lake Louise, Banff National Park harbors makeshift rinks in Lake Minnewanka, Vermilion Lake, and Johnson Lake, among other mountain-encased dreamscapes.

Many, if not most, of Banff’s lakes aren’t maintained by any one property or organization, so there’s no exact way to check the ice’s status, whether to ensure it’s safely frozen or devoid of snow on any given day. Instead, it’s most accurate to investigate the ice firsthand, so long as you take proper precautions.

This chase for wild ice inadvertently creates a road map for sightseeing through Banff and its innumerable surprises. On my way back from Lake Minnewanka—which, with sections of open water, wasn’t suitable for skating—I saw a herd of elk grazing in the distance. My skates in my lap, I rolled down my window and inhabited a postcard I never would’ve found without my ice-centric itinerary.

Even if wild ice falls short, Banff maintains a multitude of outdoor rinks, so there’s always a chance to skate. On the last night of my trip, I skated on the outdoor rink attached to the Fairmont Banff Springs. My phone read -14 degrees Fahrenheit, but the mountain views provided the perfect distraction from the cold. Although I was alone on the ice, the Canadian Rockies once again stole my spotlight, in the best way.